Would you like to be involved in the Sandgate Community Garden? New volunteers are always welcome, and the crops grown are shared by and with the community of gardeners. This is a volunteer project in the Enbrook Park grounds of Saga.
The Community Garden team are also involved in other projects around Sandgate and Folkestone, including “Incredible Edible” planters by the Golden Valley shops, in Fremantle Road Park, along the High Street and Esplanade.
You can follow all the seasons and keep updated with what is happening. Get involved in the community and learn new skills. There is now a new wildlife pond and are pleased to have 2 bee hives on site. Gardening sessions are run twice a week. Get in touch to find out more.
Follow the progress on Instagram and like or get in touch on Facebook.
Updates written by Leonie Wootton.
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 17th November 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 17th November: An executive decision was taken to lift the dahlias. Happily there was a bit more sunshine this week and a couple of lovely warm spells, although it was not to last and we are to experience close to frost temperatures this coming week. Not really surprising for mid-November. Warm weather has an effect on the clearing of the plots before the winter sets in. For example the asparagus ferns have only ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 10th November 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 10th November: Time for tea and biscuits and a Mighty Mouse. Where has the sunshine gone? We have seen a fleeting glimpse of it this week, but it soon scuttled behind a cloud so that it has been gloomy and dull every day. It seems we are stuck in this weather pattern but hopefully it will change soon. It is easy to forget how quickly it gets dark now in the afternoon. Plans ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 3rd November 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 3rd November: Plenty of flowers but possibly not enough bees to fertilise them. The rainfall for October was a substantial 82.3mm, but this week has continued to be mainly dry with mostly cloudy and dull days with the odd bit of sunshine. However the temperatures are good enough for plants to continue to grow meaning that the grass needs cutting even though it is soggy underfoot. We had meant to cut the hedge ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 27th October 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 27th October: A fast downhill spiral towards the end of the year. The clocks have gone back and now it begins to really feel that we are on a fast downhill spiral towards the end of the year and all that it brings. The weather has continued as it has been for the past few weeks with lots of warm sunshine but less rain than we have had of late. On Wednesday the ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 20th October 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 20th October: Collecting food and storing it for the long cold winter months ahead. The weather was very much like it was last week with periods of beautiful warm sunshine and lots and lots of the wet stuff in-between. It was even the same on Saturday as it was last week in that we had to cancel the morning garden session because of the rain, but there was wall to wall sunshine in ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 13th October 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 13th October: A spectacular show of colour. There was no sitting about enjoying the sunshine this week, although there were plenty of opportunities, just not when it was our formal gardening sessions on a Wednesday and Saturday morning. Unfortunately we had to cancel our session on Saturday because it just rained all morning even though the weather apps kept promising it would brighten up any time soon. The clear night skies gave the ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 6th October 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 6th October: Admire the flowers, watch the bees and butterflies, and listen to the birds singing. This week we have said hello to October and some fine sunny, warm weather. The rainfall for September was 98.5mm, which is quite something for late summer and the start of autumn. The path to the bench was cleared so that it could be seen again, and the winter squash plants taken up and composted as were ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 29th September 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 29th September: Limboing squash eating cows alert. The predictions for the weather this week were spot on – cooler, and plenty of rain giving localised showers. Parts of the country are flooded, so we have come off lightly so far; however it has had an effect on the tasks. We were rained off on our Wednesday session, and although it was just showery and windy, a decision had to be made to cancel ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 22nd September 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 22nd September: We harvested our very first and precious lemon from the tiny lemon tree We are now officially into autumn and the weather pattern changed once again after our last newsletter, to dry, sunny and humid. Perhaps it is summer having a final fling, as it seems the coming week will be giving plenty of rain and cooler temperatures. It will certainly be a relief to see the rain again, as the ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 8th September 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 8th September: The cabbage whites and are being driven mad by the smell of the brassicas. The wet weather stayed with us this week so we put away the water pump and watering cans unless there was something to plant. Unfortunately, as is always the way, the slugs and snails have been encouraged by the wet to come out and make doilies of the Chinese cabbages and generally have a good go at ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 1st September 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 1st September: Special thanks go to Rita and Erica for their many plant contributions. The whole week was dry and very warm which made the watering of the plot the main task; however on Saturday we were treated to a localised downpour in the early hours which seemed to do the job for us. With any luck we may get a few more such showers through the coming week as although rain is ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 25th August 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 25th August: The heavens opened and stayed open for most of the day. It was just as well we had cancelled being at the garden for Saturday morning as the heavens opened and stayed open for most of the day. It was torrential for much of the day, or just downright wet for the rest of the time, an amazing 22.5 mm in just one day. How fortunate we were not to have ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 11th August 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 11th August: our hops are showing signs of ‘burring’. The temperature has been going up, and apparently we are in for a warm weekend and early part of the coming week. We have had to water as much as we can during our garden sessions, which make for less time to be able to do other things, and having to prioritise the tasks. Happily most of our jobs got done, except for tidying ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 18th August 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 18th August: The sweetcorn is swelling fast and fingers are crossed that we get to them before the badgers find them. Most of the week was really warm and so the fabulous downpour of rain during the early hours of Friday morning was most welcome, and enough for us not to have to water at all on Saturday morning, therefore saving us a good deal of time. At last the hedge got the ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 4th August 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 4th August: The Nepalese slipper gourds are clambering away through the cucumbers. Having just complained last week that there was a distinct lack of summer so far, summer arrived this week, and now it starts to look like we are back to cloudy, windy, showery days with a glimpse of sunshine every now and then. Oh well, as we keep being reminded ‘it is England after all’. The rainfall for July was an ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 28th July 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 28th July: A squash seems to be climbing through the hedge. How can it be nearly August when you have been waiting for the summer to arrive? It will be really interesting to see what the rainfall has been for this month, it will be more than usual, and the cloudy days add up to make the month quite disappointing so far. Oh well, some things are certainly enjoying it like most of ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 14th July 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 14th July: Everyone you talk to in the growing world is saying the same thing. We are still stuck in this weather pattern, and it seems that the cloudier, showery weather is to stay for a while longer. Everyone you talk to in the growing world is saying the same thing about their heat loving crops – that they are struggling and really slow in getting going, so at least we are all ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 7th July 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 7th July: Parts of the garden are starting to take on a jungle appearance. The rainfall for June was 17.5 mm. We are now into July and most of us have given up trying to predict what the weather is going to do as it swings from being chilly and windy to bucketing down with rain to glorious sunshine. It is a proper rollercoaster. Most things in the garden are coping well, and ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 30th June 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 30th June: Regenerative farming today, from the politics, to the science, to the everyday practicalities. The longest day has gone and we are hurtling into July, but luckily it has begun to feel like summer and at last the summer plantings are starting to respond to the warmth and sunshine. We have stepped up the watering, and so the sweet corn, beans and squashes are putting on new growth fast. The netting previously ...
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 23rd June 2024
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 23rd June: The potatoes not eaten by the badgers, and the figs are swelling. Well, it looks like we might have finally turned some sort of weather corner, and can finally look forward to a spell of decent sunshine and warmer temperatures. Of course that always means that we have to get out the watering cans so it is a mixed blessing. On Monday there was quite a gathering at the garden when ...
